


familiar

by forgettheghosts



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Post RotJ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26204362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgettheghosts/pseuds/forgettheghosts
Summary: After the Empire falls, Luke meets a clone.
Kudos: 70





	familiar

**Author's Note:**

> idk this feels unfinished but I'm trying to post drabbles instead of leaving them unfinished in by drafts for years.

“So you’re him, then.”

Luke looked up from where he was crouched at the base of the X-Wing he was fixing, hunkered down there after Leia told him to do something useful and stop trying to recruit her staff to the temple. 

“Uh… Pardon?” He asked. The man who spoke was old, skin brown and weathered, with a white beard and arms littered with scars. He was a clone, Luke realized belatedly. 

“Luke Skywalker. You him?”

“As far as I know. Did you need something?” It had been a few months since the war ended, Imperial planets drawing up treaties with the new Alliance. People had slowly stopped walking on eggshells around him, which had been a relief. People mostly treated him normally now; at least when Leia was around, or she would snarl at them. It was helpful, in Luke’s opinion. 

“C’mon,” the old clone said. “You best come with me. We have things to talk about.”

Then he turned and began to stride away, military efficient despite his back being hunched with age. 

Luke, unsure of what else to do, followed. 

* * *

The back of every cantina in the galaxy was the same, as far as Luke could tell. And nothing good ever happened in them. 

He now found himself seated in front of the old clone, who was nursing a Corellian brandy and staring at him with an unreadable expression. He sighed, and took a drink. 

“I’ll be damned. Kix wasn’t just a gossip after all.”

“I don’t know who that is,” Luke replied wearily. 

“Our last station on Coruscant, he said one of the Guard swore he’d overheard the General on comms. That all the Senate guards had known. They never were subtle, I suppose. I know it drove Windu nuts keeping the PR scandals away.”

“Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but is this going somewhere or-”

“I said no, no way. General Skywalker’s reckless, but he’s not stupid. He wouldn’t knock up a galactic senator.”

“Wait- General Skywalker?”

The clone sighed. “Your father, kid. Unless there was a Jedi named Skywalker other than him running around the Republic, but I sure as hell hope not.”

“You knew Anakin Skywalker? You knew my father?”

“Knew him? He was my General. I kept him alive through every crazy stunt he pulled for practically the whole war.” He sipped his drink. “Knew your mother, too. She did good by us  _ vode _ . Tried to, at least.”

“How did you find me?” Luke asked. 

Rex snorted. “You’re famous, kid. A brand new Jedi. Don’t see them every day, anymore. 

“Besides, I the footage from Yavin. You fight like Kenobi.”

“You knew him too?”

Rex nodded. “My closest brother was his right hand. Or whatever those two were.” Rex smiled slightly.

“I asked him about the Clone Wars. He didn’t really want to talk about it. He wouldn’t tell me much.” Luke said.

“Well, it didn’t exactly end well. Knowing him he probably blamed himself for the whole shitshow. It’s not something a shiny who just took down Palpatine needs to worry about anyway. You’ll leave all us old-timers behind soon enough.” Rex said.

_ Shiny?  _ Luke mouthed. Rex was looking through him again, eyes slightly milky with age in the deep lines of his face. Luke had heard that clones aged faster than human standard, and Rex looked it. He looked so tired.

“Vader really killed Kenobi, then.” It wasn’t phrased as a question. 

Luke swallowed against the grief he felt whenever he thought of Ben, then nodded. 

“So he was alive. The whole time.” Rex said. 

“I knew him on Tatooine. We called him Old Ben. Everyone thought he was just crazy.” Luke said. 

“He was crazy, that bastard,” Rex huffed. He said it with affection in his voice. “Count on him to hide on that hellhole. No offence,” he gestured at Luke.

“None taken.”

“All those years. Kriff; General Kenobi, hiding out in the backwaters of the galaxy. Cody would’ve never let him hear the end of it.” Rex was gazing out over Luke’s shoulder, eyes heavy with memories. “I bet he made Vader work for it. Kenobi was a hard man to kill.”

Luke swallowed nervously, then spoke. “You… people didn’t know, but Vader, he was-”

“Don’t.” Rex cut him off harshly. “I know what you’re going to say. That thing wasn’t General Skywalker. The man I knew, he died when the order was given. Whatever lived in that shell, it wasn’t him.” He grimaced as he spoke, clutching his glass tightly. 

“I think…” Luke said carefully, “He was lost in the Dark Side, for a long time. Maybe the whole time. But right before he died, I felt him come back. I felt him join with the force.”

Rex let out a shuddering sigh. “I hope you’re right. They’ll forgive him; Obi Wan and Ashoka. They loved him too much not to.” Then he said something in a language Luke didn’t recognize, head bowed. 

“What does that mean?”

Rex huffed. “I guess no one knows now. Don’t worry, kid. Just a superstitious old man.” He stood, placed a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “You take care,  _ ner vod.  _ May the Force be with you.”

Luke nodded. He wanted to ask Rex more- about his father, about the Clone Wars. But the man had a heaviness about him, a weariness that made Luke hesitant to ask anything of him, and reluctant to force him to hear about what Vader had become. 

“May the Force be with you,” he echoed. 

Rex smiled at him, then walked away to disappear into the busy crowd of the cantine. 

Luke looked back at the table, and saw Rex had left something there. It was a pendant, carved out of durasteel, melted and shaped until it has discoloured from heat and wear. It was a skull of some kind, with huge horns and empty eyes. When he picked it up and held it, it felt warm in the Force. It felt familiar, like Ben had. Like his father had, at the end. 

He looked up again, and stood, eyes searching. But the old clone was gone; Luke couldn’t even sense him. 

Luke tucked the pendant into his pouch next to his Lightsaber, where he could feel its familiar presence in the Force. 

He made his way out of the cantine, unaware of the old man with perfect mental shields watching him go. 

_ “Ret'urcye mhi, vod’ika,”  _ Rex whispered. He knew that he would meet the boy again, in one plane or another, when he finally saw his Generals and his  _ vode  _ one last time. 


End file.
